The Creek Wood Lady Red Hawks got themselves their fifth straight-set win of the season – and second over the Kenwood Lady Knights – with a 3-0 win in Clarksville on Wednesday.

While none of the sets were particularly blowouts – 25-20, 25-17 and 25-17 – the Red Hawks were in control for almost the entire match thanks to their serving ability.

“Serving was a strength tonight,” said Creek Wood coach Jeremy Baker. “We got on good serve runs. (Katie Bowers) went on a few, she’s a freshman. We put her in and she’d go five, six, seven in a row all three games, so she did a good job. Passing was iffy tonight. Chalk that up to coming off of a three-day break (from) a holiday.”

Baker praised the mental toughness of his team as well, noting that they were able to halt Kenwood’s runs before things got out of hand.

Ironically, it was Kenwood coach Lynda Courtney who seemed more pleased with her team post-game.

“I couldn’t be happier,” she said. “You saw the scores, they were much closer than you’ve seen in the past, so it shows some growth and improvement. If you would have asked me last year, our team would have given up. We would have just been done in 25 or 30 minutes.

“This team does not quit. They continue to fight. I’ve seen that in every game they’ve played - they want it. It’s in their grasp, and they’ve got to learn how to get there.”

Though they have had trouble winning games this season, the Knights have taken a new approach early on, embracing that this is year is more of a rebuild than anything else. They have decided to ignore the scoreboard and focus on playing the best volleyball that they can each game, improving with every set.

“It takes the big picture to see because like I said, (we) still lost tonight,” Courtney said. “However, we’re using it as a practice game to attain our goals. The energy level was up, they had fun.”